seedsandstems
420 Member
Hello. This is my first post. I've lurked around the forums here for well over a year and love the knowledge I have gained through this community. Reading through many grow journals has helped me tremendously. Before I post my question, I would just like to give a little bit of background regarding my growing experience. I have done 4 very successful indoor grows. I started with DWC but finally settled on a fully automated Coco Coir drain-to-waste system and the results have been everything I hoped for. I've only grown autoflowers mainly because they are kind of idiot proof for your first time grower which I still consider myself a bit of a noob and I just enjoy the simplicity of autos. However, I want to take advantage of the climate where I live and grow outdoors for the next few months and just shut down the grow closet for a while. Where I live has an extremely long spring, summer, fall grow climate and I can easily get two grows in with autos before Fall sets in. I'm also an avid outdoor gardener and grow all sorts of veggies in raised beds and containers so I have a lot of outdoor growing experience in general. Over the years, I've fully automated my vegetable gardens for watering and I use all organic techniques, soil amendments and nutes, which finally leads to my question!
My tap water comes out of the tap with a pH of 7.8. It is some of the "hardest" water in the country. I have never used Cal/Mag because there is so much of it in our tap water. TDS is 280. Obviously, for indoor grows, I ph'd down the water in my reservoir to combat this. However, for the outdoor grow, I want to add it to my automated outdoor system that my vegetables are on. I want to make it as hassle free as possible. I'm using Fox Farms Ocean Floor for soil. So the big question is . . . is there any type of soil amendment or top dressing that I can use that will help lower the pH as the water works it's way through the soil? Are there any tips or tricks that I can use to avoid hand watering and constantly adjusting the pH? It's just a top down watering system with a vortex style spray nozzle. I'm open to any and all suggestion and thank you in advance for your responses. Peace!
My tap water comes out of the tap with a pH of 7.8. It is some of the "hardest" water in the country. I have never used Cal/Mag because there is so much of it in our tap water. TDS is 280. Obviously, for indoor grows, I ph'd down the water in my reservoir to combat this. However, for the outdoor grow, I want to add it to my automated outdoor system that my vegetables are on. I want to make it as hassle free as possible. I'm using Fox Farms Ocean Floor for soil. So the big question is . . . is there any type of soil amendment or top dressing that I can use that will help lower the pH as the water works it's way through the soil? Are there any tips or tricks that I can use to avoid hand watering and constantly adjusting the pH? It's just a top down watering system with a vortex style spray nozzle. I'm open to any and all suggestion and thank you in advance for your responses. Peace!